


a land serene, a crystal moon

by jk_rockin



Category: Glee, Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Crossover, M/M, Supernatural Elements, weird unfinished stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-28
Updated: 2013-02-28
Packaged: 2017-12-03 21:56:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jk_rockin/pseuds/jk_rockin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered,” Dave says. His voice wobbles.</p>
<p>“No, no, listen,” Blaine says, his hands fluttering at Dave’s collar, “please, don’t.”</p>
<p>“I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city,” Dave recites, “to take back the child that you have stolen.”</p>
<p>(or, snippets from an alternate universe in which Dave never left McKinley and Blaine is possessed by the Goblin King.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	a land serene, a crystal moon

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not even in this fandom anymore, but I still had this weird little collection of crossover AU bits I never finished, and this one is my favourite. It doesn't really start and it only sort of ends, but I'm proud of what there is of it. If I were to write the middle of this (you know, the bit where _things happen_ ) I like to hope it would be as delightfully wacky as the glorious film to which that which exists of this 'verse owes existence, but it would probably be kind of metaphor-heavy, and slightly dreamlike, and totally lack porn.
> 
> Continuing my fine tradition of taking titles from song lyrics, this one comes from _Underground_ by David Bowie, from the _Labyrinth_ soundtrack. (duh.)

When the hockey team take up bullying Kurt- specifically, rather than the generalised scorn they heap on New Directions- Dave ends up resuming his bodyguard duties. Kurt’s grateful but unintentionally obnoxious, harping on at him about coming out and “being educated”. Dave figures he owes him, so he sucks it up and walks Kurt to class.

One night, hockey conditioning and a late rehearsal fall on the same night, and Kurt insists Dave stays to walk him out when he’s done. He’s kind of a dick about it, and they get into an argument; Dave is cranky, Kurt is tired, and eventually yells “I’m not going anywhere, David. The goblins aren’t going to take me away. You’re stuck with me.”

And Dave snaps back, “I wish the goblins would come and take you away. Right now.”

The lights flicker. When they come back on, Kurt is gone. Dave calls out for him, thinking he’s run off in a huff, and a figure steps out from the curtains- but it’s not Kurt. It’s Blaine. His eyes look strange, yellow, like an owl’s, and his teeth gleam when he smiles.

\-----

Dave bends forward, fighting nausea. The running he’s kind of getting used to, but the stairs, how they twist under him and move as he moves, that’s new and not fun. If he ever gets home, the M.C. Escher poster in his room is gonna have to go. He keeps just catching sight of Kurt, just ahead or just above, but he vanishes every time he gets close, the stairs sliding away-

-and then he sees him, below, in a huge birdcage. He’s hammering at the bars, but it’s useless. There isn’t a door. Dave casts around for a way down- more stairs, if he has to, or a ladder or something, but there’s only going back or going off the ledge.

He takes a deep breath, and jumps.

It takes forever to fall, like he’s floating, but when he lands he lands hard. His knees crunch ominously as he hits the stone floor, and they twinge as he stands.

Out of nowhere, Blaine is there again, trailing his fingers along the golden bars of Kurt’s cage. “He looks good like this, don’t you think?” He doesn’t- Kurt’s eyes are red, wide and frightened, his hair’s a mess- but Kurt is in one spot, at least, where Dave can see him. He looks more angry than anything. Reassuring. 

“Give me the child,” he begins.

“Oh, must you?" Blaine gives him an unimpressed look. "He could be happy here. Safe. I’d give him everything,” Blaine says, cocking his head.

“You’ll look after him, huh? Change his newspapers every day?” Dave edges closer to the cage. “He’s not a puppy, asshole. He’s a person. Give him back.”

“He thinks you’re a pet.” Blaine smiles, and his teeth catch the light. “A loyal spaniel. That’s all you’ll be to him, you know. If he stays here, you can go back to your life. Your friends, football, hockey. Duke stud, right?”

Jesus, even- that is tempting, even knowing what it costs. Knowing that this guy could make it happen, it’s like it plays out behind Dave’s eyes in a blur of letterman jackets and high-fives and weekend parties. Normal. Awesome. Behind Blaine, Dave can see Kurt yanking at the bars, his face red with effort. He’s yelling, but Dave can’t hear him- he can make out the shapes of words, like _don’t_ and _lying_ and _please_ , and, yes. Of course. Blaine (or whoever this creepy asshole in Blaine’s face really is) knows the shape of what Dave wants, what Dave had, but he hasn’t been paying attention. It’s been thirteen long, long hours of intensely weird shit happening to Dave, and thus far Dave hasn’t shrugged and gone home. He’s bitched- not unwarranted- but he’s still here, and the reason is in that cage.

He shakes his head.

A sly look crosses not-Blaine’s face, smoothly replaced by that smile. His eyes dip, seductive. “You don’t have to leave, of course,” he says, contemplatively. “If you like him so much better than your old life- and who could blame you?- you could stay.”

This little shit maybe does know Dave. Or maybe just teenaged closet-case assholes like him; the way he says ‘stay’ sound like- well, a whole lot of things. Like he’d give _Dave_ everything, maybe, if he asked for it. That thought must show on his face, because Blaine’s grin widens. “No more worrying, no more stress. And Kurt, of course.” He leans against the cage, reaching in. As his fingers trail down the side of Kurt’s face, Kurt’s expression shifts; he all but melts against the bars, mouth opening, with this look in his eyes like he’s starving and Dave’s dinner. Dave swallows hard.

“You’d be good to him, wouldn’t you?” Blaine coos, fingers carding through Kurt’s hair. “I bet you’d do anything for him, if he stayed.” Kurt nods frantically, clutching at the bars, and his eyes flash gold like Blaine’s where they catch the light. Blaine licks his lips. “Anything you want, I can give you. Even him,” he says. “Stay.”

Guilty longing claws up Dave’s throat. He can’t look at Kurt. He knows it’s another trick- it’s always a trick- but he can’t watch those flushed cheeks and wide eyes and keep his head. He looks at Blaine, or whoever he is, at his sly smile and the soft grey edges of his coat- how he blurs, just a little, when he moves- and says “I can’t.”

The smile vanishes. Blaine scowls, ugly. He lets go of Kurt and takes a step towards Dave, but Dave doesn’t miss how Kurt’s face falls, and his stomach twists at the look of horror and disgust in Kurt’s eyes as he backs away, hand to his mouth.

“You want to play noble now?” Blaine wrinkles his nose derisively. “I didn’t take him for kicks, David. You asked.”

“I know.” He looks at Kurt, but Kurt won’t meet his eyes. “Can’t you just take it back? I didn’t mean it. I was just so mad- ”

“Oh, you didn’t?” Blaine folds his arms. “You know, you could be a little more appreciative,” he snaps. “Everything you asked for, I did it. You wanted Kurt gone? I took him. You wanted a villain? I was villainous. I have catered to your every whim, and you repay me with _whining_.” His eyes are bright yellow, now; his hair shines like black feathers. “I don’t just play with time for my own amusement, David. I have run myself ragged for you. Don’t I deserve something in return?”

“What- what do you want?”

“Just love me,” he says, like it’s simple. “Just fear me. That’s it. That’s all. Just give yourself to me, and I can give you everything you’ve ever dreamed of.”

Dave swallows again, mouth dry. “And Kurt?”

“Ours,” Blaine says. “Ours, for always. He’ll love you- I can make him. He’ll love you, here, like he loves me-”

“You’re not Blaine,” says Kurt, suddenly loud, gripping the bars. His knuckles are white. “Dave, please, he’s not.”

“I could be!” His long grey coat whips around him as he turns, rustling. “I will be, for you. I can be anyone, if you wanted.”

“No,” says Dave, shaking his head. “I can’t. I know how this ends, and I can’t.”

“Every dream you’ve ever had,” Blaine pleads. Around them, the stones of the stairs float; the walls are gone, the floor is cracking. “I can build them, all of them, I can make them for you-”

“Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered,” Dave says. His voice wobbles.

“No, no, listen,” Blaine says, his hands fluttering at Dave’s collar, “please, don’t.”

“I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city,” Dave recites, praying he doesn’t fuck it up; it’s been so long and he’s so tired, “to take back the child that you have stolen.”

“You can’t do this,” Blaine howls. His face is shifting; behind him, Kurt is kicking at the bars of the cage. Dave can hear the metal whine as it bends, curling in on itself.

“For my will is as strong as yours,” he says, raising his voice over the rising wind; he puts his hands over his ears. “And my kingdom is as great- shit. I can never remember-”

“Dave!” Kurt is yelling, elbowing the crumbling bars apart. “Dave, come on, hurry!”

“For my will is as strong as yours,” Dave mutters to himself, deafened by the noise, “and my kingdom is as great...” He looks at Blaine- not that he looks much like Blaine now; he’s all big yellow eyes, all sharp angles, his skin grey-white and pebbled with the beginnings of feathers. Dave looks from him to Kurt, to the wreckage around them. He takes his hands off his ears.

“You have no power over me.”

The cage shatters. He dives for Kurt as the floor gives way beneath them, catching him by the wrist, and they fall, tumbling, through a flurry of wingbeats and the echo of Dave’s voice.

\----

When he opens his eyes, Dave finds himself flat on his back on the stage, Kurt’s hand a warm weight in his. Kurt seems to be asleep. He checks his watch. 7 AM. When he stands, his knees twinge, like- huh. Like he’s been running all night.

Kurt stirs, sitting up on his elbows. “Dave?”

“You alright?”

“Fine, I think.” He takes Dave’s proffered hand, hauling himself to his feet. “My head hurts.”

“Mine too.”

Kurt stretches, wincing. He looks at Dave. “So that bizarre dream I had where I was trapped in a castle by Evil Blaine-”

“Yeah.” Dave scuffs a toe against the floorboards. “Mine was, uh. A little different, but yeah.”

“In mine, you came to save me.” Kurt smiles crookedly. “He offered you everything you ever wanted, and you chose to rescue me.”

Dave feels himself flush scarlet. “Did I,” he says weakly.

“Mm-hmm.” Kurt’s still holding his hand. “He offered you a lot you didn’t take,” he says, cheeks pinking.

Dave coughs, looking at their hands. “I didn’t want it.” Kurt flinches. “No, I mean,” he says hurriedly, “I do, you know. I guess you know I want that. But what he was offering- that was a trick. It wasn’t y- it wasn’t real.”

Kurt squeezes his fingers. “And if it were real?” His breath stutters. When he looks up, Kurt’s eyes are very bright, very blue- they’re standing very close-

From behind the curtain, there’s a thump and a muffled exclamation. “Ow,” says Blaine, crawling out onto the stage, clutching his head. “Am I hungover? Where- Kurt! Why are we in the auditorium?” He coughs, hacking and wheezing, and chokes out a clump of feathers.


End file.
